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Wärtsilä replacement company retains 80% of technical staff
…Entire management team well qualified – Arron Fraser
Power Producer and Distribution Incorporated (PPDI), the state-owned company that replaced Wärtsilä Operations Guyana Inc. (WOGI) has managed to retain about 80 per cent of technical staff to maintain and operate
From left: Deputy CEO, Gary Hall, PPDI Board Chairman, Mark Bender, PPDI CEO, Arron Fraser and Deputy Chief Executive Officer (ag) – Operations and Maintenance, Robindra Parmanand
generators owned by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL).
This information was relayed to members of the media corps yesterday during a tour of the Kingston power plants that come under the remit of the PPDI.
According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PPDI, Arron Fraser, currently, there are 134 persons employed by PPDI.
“Of those 134, 97 are technical people, I’ll say about 80 per cent came from Wärtsilä. Coincidentally, they were the more experienced ones.”
Fraser explained that following the takeover by PPDI, employees who worked under WOGI were given the option of staying to work with PPDI or to leave. He added that PPDI currently has five persons who would have been working with WOGI since day one.
According to Fraser, the current Deputy Chief Executive Officer – Human Resources and Administration, Gary Hall, is one of those which chose to stay.
Moreover, Fraser gave details as to the years of experience which the company’s management team possesses.
“The Management team as it is, we all have in excess of 15 years, and I’d like to say context-specific experience, because we have all worked in power plants and power plant generation for those years.”
He said that the field service personnel have been working with Wärtsilä in excess of 20 years and they have been performing field service work in excess of eight years, in terms of their experience.
He added that when it comes to the academic qualifications of the field service personnel, there are persons that are pursuing their doctorates, while some have obtained their Masters. Fraser said that all the engineers in the company, in addition to their technical diplomas and degrees, have a Master of Business Administration qualification.
Further, he said that the company is equipped with its own chartered accountant. He said that the 22 technicians that work with the company have either a diploma or first degree.
Moreover, Chairman of the Board of Directors for PPDI, Mark Bender, said that there is a strict training regime that is continuous as well as on-the-job training. Based on information provided, PPDI invested for the year so far, 1,387 hours of training for technical staff and 579 hours for administrative staff.
He said that the Board is very pleased with the performance of the company’s employees, including the management team.
“We are very impressed with their commitment, their knowledge, their ability to understand issues and their ability to keep up-to-date with best practices. And so we want to say that PPDI in terms of the management is in very good hands.”
On the issue of best practices, Bender indicated that it is not limited to the maintenance of the engines.
“As I said, we want to ensure that we use best practices in terms of corporate governance, not only in the area of the engines themselves, and the operations and maintenance of the engines, but also in safety. Occupation safety is one of the key pillars of this company.”
Further, he said that the company is moving towards boosting its corporate governance as it relates to financial propriety. He said that recently, the company developed a procurement manual. According to him, the attendant policies and procedures have been sent to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board for a review, so that the company can be advised on the suitability of the policies.
Meanwhile, Bender informed the media that as of September 1st, an internal auditor will assume duties at PPDI.
“So quite apart from the engineering aspect, when you look at other aspects of corporate governance, transparency, health and safety, environmental obligations etc., this is our goal, to strictly comply with our legal obligations, to look after the safety and health of our employees, to continuously train them looking towards the future, so that the company of which the government has high expectations will remain relevant.”
PPDI took over from WOGI in December 2016, when the government of Guyana chose not to renew the contract with WOGI to operate and maintain engines at four power plants, specifically at Garden of Eden on the East Bank of Demerara, Vreed-en-Hoop on the West Coast of Demerara and two at Kingston, Georgetown.
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